Liminal Spaces and Nostalgic

Architectural spaces can provoke certain feelings just as human interaction does. They can represent times long gone, different periods of our lives, and situations in which we once took part or that we want to take part in. In this way, an architectural space functions in line with what it is: a container for our feelings and thoughts, from which we can recollect them again. Different from an object that more definitely radiates a use and meaning, a space is fuzzy and more open to possibilities. It is therefore no surprise that a certain genre of architectural photography has gained cult-following on the internet: photos of liminal spaces.

In the context of this new movement, liminal spaces, including so-called backrooms, are a type of emotional space that conveys a sense of nostalgia, lostness, and uncertainty. They often lack activity and purpose either because they lay unused or because they are spaces of transition - of becoming instead of being. They connect to the basic human condition of ephemerality, the notion that nothing lasts forever. As generic as liminal spaces are, they become impossible to locate and thus transcend time and place, attaining an eerie otherworldly feeling.

 

Consider a corridor, which is nothing in its own right, but merely leads to more important rooms. A corridor makes you wonder what will meet you in the rooms it leads to. It is this uncertainty that makes corridors widely used in horror movies where they signal that something frightening is about to happen. Who doesn’t feel at unease watching Danny roll around the corridors of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining?